Ferrari houses, billionaire donors and enhanced humans – wealth roundup
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 | Posted by: Fiona Cullinan
| Tags: entrepreneurs,
links,
recession,
property,
health,
Bill Gates,
podcasts,
Forbes,
Ted Turner,
body language,
biotech,
benefactors,
Ferrari
These are just a few of the things the Bespoke blog team has been reading about this month. There’s also the UK property millionaire slump, researching your ancestors’ financial past through death duties, the rude body language of the well-off and more…
Billion-dollar donors : This new list from Forbes shows a rather exclusive subset of the super-wealthy – those who have donated at least $1 billion. Of the 793 billionaires in the world today, only 11 made it into this group, with Bill Gates topping the list by giving away $28 billion, mostly to charity via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Only he could make media mogul Ted Turner’s $1 billion donation seem measly. Interestingly, a further breakdown shows that it is entrepreneurs who more likely to donate at this level, while those with inherited wealth are perhaps more likely to hoard.
10 people who got rich during the depression : An inspiring read for those who have been battening down the recession hatches in recent times. Back in the 1930s, the money-makers in the US were sports and entertainment stars, such as baseball’s Babe Ruth, actor James Cagney and musician Glen Miller, the inventor of Monopoly, aviator Howard Hughes, a supermarket pioneer and bank robber John Dillinger. Who will it be this time?
UK’s million-pound properties slide away : The property millionaires’ club is becoming more exclusive again, with 100,000 fewer members since November 2007. Only one in 150 homes are now valued at more than £1 million – a drop from the one in 97 properties valued prior to the credit crunch, according to research by property portal Zoopla.
15 podcasts that will make you richer : Such an irresistible headline has made this US Business Pundit article popular on social-networking sites such as Digg and features podcasts from the likes of Harvard Business Review and the Wall Street Journal. But where are the UK-based equivalents? The FT.com audio podcasts, maybe? Or how about this art investment series interviewing leading lights from the world of art collecting and investing? Maybe it’s just not British to be so direct about ‘getting rich’.
The final balance: researching families and wealth in the 19th century using the death duty records : A 90-minute presentation from the National Archives explaining the terms and (occasionally defunct) tax levies for those wanting to delve into their financial family tree.
Would you buy a Ferrari house? : How the luxury car brand may be moving into the luxury property market. Genuine leather seating and no square corners presumably…
Rich ‘may evolve into separate species’ : Biotech and robotic engineering innovations will lead to genetically tweaked and cybernetically enhanced humans, but such innovations will be the preserve of the super-rich only, according to an American futurologist talking to The Telegraph. Time to turbocharge the investment portfolio, then.
Body language reveals wealth : A university study has shown that the higher your socioeconomic status, the ruder you might be – with subjects displaying uninterested body language such as fidgeting and doodling in the presence of another. Those lower down the pecking order, meanwhile, were more likely to display interested body language such as raising their eyebrows, nodding and laughing.
Further reading – Innovation links and Entrepreneur roundup.
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